Ah, sand makes sense. Thank you for the clarification. As for the backgrounds, they’re usually really good. This was just a particular case where the sand is the same colour/shade as the magical spirit goo. Since the limits of magical awesome have not yet been explored, that just left a possibility of it being some kind of giant, spirit orb-based travel magic.

Not exactly. Tane picks up Elk and double backs for the village a bit. Some time has elapsed between the last two panels where Tane is riding and then spots the others in the horizon. I’ll admit it’s a little awkward.